The UK in 2016 as seen by Press Association photographers – BBC News

Image copyrightAnthony Devlin/PAImage caption In January, singer David Bowie, one of the most influential musicians of his era, died of cancer at the age of 69. Fans laid flowers in the singer’s memory at a mural in Brixton and some months later the council announced it was to be listed to ensure its long-term protection. Image copyrightIan West/ PAImage caption Ant and Dec showed off their 15th consecutive best presenter award at the National Television Awards to Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan while he took a selfie. Image copyrightStefan Rousseau/PAImage caption Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU would take place on 23 June. Here he campaigns alongside Lord Ashdown for the Remain vote. Image copyrightStefan Rousseau/ PAImage caption In February, after days of speculation, the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson, announced he would back the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union. Mr Johnson said the decision came with a “huge amount of heartache” and the last thing he wanted, was to go against the government. Image copyrightPete Souza / PAImage caption Prince George met the US President Barack Obama at Kensington Palace, London, with his father the Duke of Cambridge. The president was in town to congratulate the Queen on her 90th birthday. Image copyrightPeter Byrne/PAImage caption St George’s Hall in Liverpool was illuminated following a commemorative service to mark the outcome of the Hillsborough inquest, which ruled that 96 Liverpool fans who died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster were unlawfully killed. Image copyrightDanny Lawson/PAImage caption In May, Nicola Sturgeon was reappointed as first minister of Scotland after she was backed for the job by MSPs. Ms Sturgeon’s SNP won its third consecutive Holyrood election on 5 May, but finished two seats short of an overall majority. Image copyrightAndrew Milligan/PAImage caption Alexander Drummond, five, from Callander inspected soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland alongside a stormtrooper from the Star Wars films during the Stirling Military Show at King’s Park. Image copyrightLauren Hurley/PAImage caption The start of summer was marked by heavy rain and grey skies forcing these commuters to run for shelter outside Victoria Station in London. Image copyrightDanny Lawson/ PAImage caption Flowers for the local Labour MP Jo Cox lined the floor outside Batley Town Hall on EU referendum polling day. Mrs Cox was murdered in West Yorkshire a week before the vote. Prosecutors said her killer was motivated by hate and his crimes were “nothing less than acts of terrorism”. Image copyrightGareth Fuller/PAImage caption In July, young people laid wreaths during a service to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the World War One battle of the Somme at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorial in Thiepval, France, where 70,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave are commemorated. Image copyrightDominic Lipinski/PAImage caption Following the result of the EU referendum, which saw the country vote to leave the EU, Theresa May met with the Queen and became the UK’s new prime minister. Earlier, David Cameron made his final speech as PM and handed his resignation in to the monarch. Image copyrightStefan Rousseau/PAImage caption Armed Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers took part in an exercise on the River Thames in London, after Scotland Yard announced that the first of 600 additional armed officers were trained and operationally ready as part of plans to put more marksmen on patrol. Image copyrightBen Birchall/ PAImage caption A Routemaster bus made its way from the deserted village of Imber on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire on the one day of the year the site is open to the public. The village was abandoned in December 1943, when villagers were told by the Army to pack their bags and leave because the area was to be used for military training. Image copyrightStefan Wermuth/PAImage caption Bank of England Governor Mark Carney posed with the new plastic 5 note which went into circulation in September. Image copyrightDominic Lipinski/PAImage caption The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Canada with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, for a royal tour, five years after they first visited the country as newly-weds. Image copyrightYui Mok/ PAImage caption A pilot wearing a jetpack took to the skies above the River Thames in east London like “a real-life Iron Man”. David Mayman, a former commercial pilot, flew at a height of 30m for four minutes wearing a turbine jet engine-powered JB-10 jetpack. He hopes to make an electric version of the jetpack to be available in 2019 – at a price of nearly 200,000. Image copyrightStefan Rousseau/ PAImage caption Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond described the Autumn Statement – the government’s second big economic statement of the year and his first – as a plan to ensure the UK economy was “match-fit”.